Jesus Would Role Over In His Grave

[Cinjin]

... if he knew his triumphant march into Jerusalem would one day be celebrated with symbols of sex.









You silly christians. Always stealing everyone elses shit.

[Confused Ape]

You silly christians. Always stealing everyone elses shit.

The idea that Easter is named after Ishtar originated with Alexander Hislop

Alexander Hislop (born Duns, Berwickshire, 1807; died Arbroath, 13 March 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister known for his outspoken criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church.

He wrote several books, his most famous being The Two Babylons: Papal worship Proved to be the worship of Nimrod and His wife.

Hislop's work has been described as conspiracy theory propaganda which mixed "sketchy knowledge of Middle Eastern antiquity with a vivid imagination."[1]

He claimed the Roman Catholic Church was a Babylonian mystery cult, and pagan, whereas Protestants worshipped the true Jesus and the true God. He contended that Roman Catholic religious practices are actually pagan practices grafted onto true Christianity during the reign of Constantine. At this point, he alleged, the merger between the Roman state religion and its adoration of the mother and child was transferred to Christianity, merging Christian characters with pagan mythology. The Goddess was renamed Mary, and Jesus was the renamed Jupiter-Puer, or "Jupiter the Boy".

Hislop's theory was that the goddess, in Rome called Venus or Fortuna, was the Roman name of the more ancient Babylonian cult of Ishtar, whose origins began with a blonde-haired and blue-eyed woman named Semiramis.

According to Hislop, Semiramis was an exceedingly beautiful woman, who gave birth to a son named Tammuz, was instrumental as the queen, and wife of Nimrod the founder of Babylon, and its religion, complete with a pseudo-Virgin Birth. This he called a foreshadowing of the birth of Christ, prompted by Satan. Later, Nimrod was killed, and Semiramis, pregnant with his child, claimed the child was Nimrod reborn.

Hislop claimed that the cult and worship of Semiramis spread globally, her name changing with the culture. In Egypt she was Isis, in Greece and Rome she was called Venus, Diana, Athena, and a host of other names, but was always prayed to and central to the faith which was based on Babylonian mystery religion.

The following link is to a page of his book where he says that the name, Easter, is Astarte/Ishtar so of Chaldean origins.

The Two Babylons

The Etymology of Ēostre traces the word back from Old English.

Old English Eōstre continues into modern English as Easter and derives from Proto-Germanic *austrōn meaning 'dawn', itself a descendent of the Proto-Indo-European root *aus-, meaning 'to shine' (modern English east also derives from this root).[1]

The goddess name Eōstre is therefore linguistically cognate with numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European language-speaking peoples. These cognates lead to the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess; the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture details that "A Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various [Indo-European] groups” and that “all of this evidence permits us to posit a [Proto-Indo-European] *haéusōs 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a "reluctant" bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the IE stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, the existence of a PIE 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'"[2]

Yes, there's a lot of pagan ideas in Christianity and people wandered around a lot and borrowed bits and pieces from each other. Saying that the proto-Germanic tribes worshiped Ishtar is stretching it a bit, though. It's also stretching it to say that the proto-Germanic tribes changed Ishtar's symbols of lions and an eight pointed star into bunnies and eggs.

[Cinjin]

Thank you confused ape. That was very insightful. I am not familiar at all with Hislop's work.

I will say this though: The tradition of bunnies and eggs does come from somewhere - as all traditions do, and regardless of how many religions are involved in its origins, it's still not Christianity - it's just a silly practice and I thought I'd make light of it. Thus, the smileys.


Cheers

[Minimalist]

http://www.englatheod.org/eostre.htm

Easter eggs seem to go fairly far back in both English and continental celebrations, and of course symbolize the beginning of new life. The hare also known for its fertility appears fairly early in Easter celebrations. Bonfires and vigils also seemed to play a role in many Easter rites.

[Confused Ape]

http://www.englatheod.org/eostre.htm

Easter eggs seem to go fairly far back in both English and continental celebrations, and of course symbolize the beginning of new life. The hare also known for its fertility appears fairly early in Easter celebrations. Bonfires and vigils also seemed to play a role in many Easter rites.

This is true but it still doesn't meant that Hislop was right about Easter being named after Ishtar.

I found an article about the so called truth of Easter on Babylon Forsaken Ministries

We are a non-denominational ministry dedicated to calling the sinner from darkness, and the seeker of truth from religious confusion into the simplicity of the gospel. We believe and preach the Message of Revelation 14:12, which commands all men to place their faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and to obey the Commandments of God. (Click here to see the 7 Pillars of our faith)

The Truth About Easter article includes Hislop's story of Semiramis and Nimrod.

Semiramis

For ancient Greeks[1] Semiramis (Greek: Σεμίραμις, Armenian: Շամիրամ Shamiram) was the legendary queen of king Ninus, succeeding him to the throne of Assyria.

The legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, Justin and others from Ctesias of Cnidus describe her and her relationship to King Ninus, himself a mythical king of Assyria, not attested in the Assyrian King List.

The legends about her are nothing like Hislop's ideas. I fell around laughing at this bit at the end.

Author and conspiracy theorist David Icke also incorporates Hislop's claims about Semiramis into his book The Biggest Secret, claiming that Semiramis also had a key role in the Reptilian alien conspiracy that he asserts is secretly controlling humanity.[18]

Ninus

The figures of King Ninus and Queen Semiramis first appear in the history of Persia written by Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC), who claimed, as court physician to Artaxerxes II, to have access to the royal historical records.[1] Ctesias' account was later expanded on by Diodorus Siculus. Ninus continued to be mentioned by European historians (e.g. Alfred the Great), even up until knowledge of cuneiform enabled a more precise reconstruction of Assyrian and Babylonian history from the mid 19th century onwards.

Ninus was first identified in the Recognitions (part of Clementine literature) with the biblical Nimrod, who, the author says, taught the Persians to worship fire.

From what I can gather the Ishtar pic appeared on the Richard Dawkins Foundation Facebook page and was then removed because the information was incorrect. This was too late to stop people sharing it, though. (I'm only going by comments made on this FB page).

[Polaris]

Easter as it is called in the English language is based off Passover. The only other language I have come across to label it anything close to Easter is German with Eoster.

Most languages in the world don't have separate words for Passover and Easter and those that do, have the words similar so as to point to the connection.

Most of the pagan traditions that find themselves into "Christian" traditions impact the secular observance rather than the religious observance. The two major holidays of Christmas and Easter, throughout history, each encompassed two separate holidays very much different from each other. For Christmas, the secular version won out.

[Minimalist]

The Venerable Bede, an 8th century xtian monk, wrote of the goddess Eostre being celebrated among the Germanic tribes.


Just like every culture had a beginning of winter festival so also did they have a beginning of spring festival. The xtians just tacked (pun intended) their godboy onto one.

[Confused Ape]

Just like every culture had a beginning of winter festival so also did they have a beginning of spring festival. The xtians just tacked (pun intended) their godboy onto one.

A clever move, really, because it meant that people were more likely to convert if they didn't have to give up cherished customs.

InterpretatioChristiana

Reformatting traditional religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory I to Mellitus, arguing that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honour of the Christian God, "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God".[3] In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, but that the reasoning behind them was altered.